Desert Vista HOA assessment fees are currently $31.50 every three months (or $126.00 per year). But, if you stop paying for a year, the $126.00 HOA assessment fee can turn into over $1,500.00 dollars including the $1,200.00 for the attorney (collections fee). That is 10 times over the projected amount!

Unfortunately, this is the realty for a Desert Vista resident witch is in Social Security disability.

Meeting by email are illegal

Many HOA’s, Management Companies, and their attorneys think it’s OK to dispense with open Board Meetings and have meetings by email, as long as they’re unanimous. Some HOA’s even have that written into their documents. The attorneys, including Carpenter Hazlewood until very recently continued to argue that ARS 10 allows you to do that.

One Management Company even testified it is standard practice in the industry. Not only does that contravene open meeting rules for HOA’s but:

A judgement was already obtained last year on that very point with heavy sanctions involved

A second judgement was obtained reaffirming that this month.

Carpenter Hazelwood, in a last ditch attempt to avoid sanctions were forced to drop the repeat defense of this practice and admit wrongdoing.

More than half the homeowners of the Rancho Sahuarita community are outraged after they received notices from their homeowners association’s management company, saying they need to either repaint their houses or fix their landscaping.

Many residents say their homes don’t need to be repainted, and they’re demanding answers.

“You expect a bill to come in the mail because you’ve signed up and you’ve done things,” said Rancho Sahuarita resident Crystal Donnelly. “But a letter coming in the mail saying ‘You need to paint your house?’ No.”

About 2,600 homeowners received the letter that says their homes do not meet the minimum community-wide standards for exterior paint.

Associa Arizona, the HOA’s management company, said in a statement that it inspected each house in March and April of this year.

The company said this is a followup to a compliance effort made in May 2013 in which 1,800 letters were sent to homeowners, resulting in more than 1,350 violations being corrected.

“These homeowners have been asked to correct the deficiencies as part of community-wide efforts to maintain the value and aesthetics of the neighborhood for the families who live here and the families considering to make their home in Rancho Sahuarita,” the company said in the statement.

“It seems like harassment to me,” said Crystal Donnelly’s husband Kevin, who said his house a manufacturing defect near their garage that was already in the process of being fixed and repainted. “If they would’ve been more specific in giving us a warning to tell us what they were doing, then it would be OK. We knew that we had to fix that, and we had somebody lined up to fix it, but this just caught us off guard.”

Every homeowner who received a letter was also given a copy of the community standards that give specific details about acceptable exterior paint and also note deterioration of wood, excessive chipping and peeling of paint or stucco as infractions needing to be brought up to snuff.

For residents such as Michael Gray, the notice wasn’t unexpected, and he said he was already in the process of repainting his home when he received his letter.

“It’s that pride of ownership,” said Gray. “That’s what you pay for, and that’s why you bought the house.”

UPDATE: Associa Arizona spoke with Tucson News Now and says it has listened to resident’s concerns. They said they’re in the process of reassessing all inspections and will be in close contact with residents to discuss in further detail.